Editorial
Recently we ran a story about what rodeo might have been like if the sports writers over the last century would have treated the sport the same way they have treated say football and basketball. Last week I found myself asking another question. Why when a young man who was not only active in rodeo but was selected for the Wrangler All Star Team from Iowa was tragically killed in a car accident the story never even made the Iowa news. Yet two young children killed in a fire and another young man hit by a train was all over the news. Sorry but this really upset me. The school where the 15 year old Dalton Baumann attended had to call in grief counselors for the students but that didn’t help the numerous young people around the state who had competed with him as recently as two days before his death and will now have to deal with this. In many cases their schools may not even have been aware of his death. He was active in baseball and wrestling as well which brings in two more groups of athletes who knew him well.
On Saturday, May 19th over 700 people filled the funeral home. No one counted but the number of people high school age and under was a very large percentage. There was his wrestling team, his two baseball teams, his local rodeo team, and numerous members of the Iowa High School Rodeo Association plus students from other states that had attended the Wrangler National Finals with him last summer. Hundreds of young people dealing with the death of a friend and fellow competitor that the news media did not feel warranted their attention. There will be a benefit to help pay the final expense of this wonderful young man on June 30th in Winterset, Iowa. Hopefully, the sport and the family will get more consideration from the news media for the Dalton Baumann Benefit than the respect he got last week. Rodeo Attitude is proud to be a sponsor of this event and will do everything we can to help them.
